If Anne Hidalgo wins Paris’ next mayoral election in a few weeks, Paris will soon have Scootlib, an electric-scooter sharing program.

Paris pioneered Velolib, a highly successful bicycle sharing service, and Autolib, a surprisingly popular electric-car sharing network. Hidalgo’s plan would add 5000 electric scooters to the streets of Paris, with 700 charging stations. They would complement Velolib’s 18,600 public bicycles and Autlib’s 2000 electric cars. The price of renting a scooter would be between $4 and $14 for an hour.

No details were given on what kind of electric scooters will be considered. In France, a 50cc-equivalent electric scooter can be used by 14-year-olds who passed a recently introduced theory and practical test called “brevet de sécurité routière”; a 125cc-equivalent machine can be used by any 16 year-old with an A1 licence.

Each scooter would come with a helmet, which will be regularly cleaned and disinfected. Similar electric scooter sharing programs already exist in Barcelona (Spain), with the Motit service, and in San Francisco, with the Scoot network. We will soon review the Scoot service in this blog.